Motivational Beliefs and Learning Strategies in Organic Chemistry

Abstract

Students enter college chemistry courses with different sources of motivation, appropriate or inappropriate assumptions about their probability of success and how to study. This study is theoretically aligned with self-regulated learning research. Clearly, academic performance is closely related to student motivational beliefs and learning strategies. This study investigated the motivational beliefs and learning strategies of 2 years of college students in the second semester of organic chemistry. Responses to the Motivational Beliefs and Learning Strategies Questionnaire indicated that student selfefficacy was highly correlated with academic performance (semester grades). Gender differences were quite pronounced. Male academic performance was associated with intrinsic motivation as well as the importance placed on the learning task. Test anxiety was negatively associated with male grades. Extrinsic motivation was negatively correlated with female grades. Responses to students' sense of control over learning, the value of the learning task, and self-efficacy were significantly higher for males compared to females. Faculty who attend to these different patterns may influence beliefs as well as learning strategies. Correcting erroneous assumptions about how to learn chemistry may help students shift both their attitudes and their learning practices. The notable gender difference suggests that female chemistry students may especially profit from focused faculty intervention.

Connecting to the Professor: Impact of the Student–Faculty Relationship in a Highly Challenging Course

“…Certainly, individual factors play a large role in how students adapt to difficult courses; for instance, goal orientation, approach to learning, and motivation have all been shown to influence the ways in which students interpret and approach difficult tasks (Lynch and Trujillo, 2010;Meece, Anderman, and Anderman, 2006;Pintrich, 2000;Winberg and Hedman, 2007). However, these individual tendencies can be moderated by instructors' behavior and design of the learning experience (Kember and Gow, 1994;Komarraju, Musulkin, and Bhattacharya, 2010;Self-Brown and Matthews, 2003).…”

Predictive Power of The Motivation in Science Classes of Eighth Grade Turkish Students on Their Self Regulation Skills*

“…In some studies, motivation and self-regulation skill levels of female students were much higher than those of male students (Pajares, Britner & Valiante, 2000;Pajares &Valiante 2001;Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1990). On the other hand, motivation and selfregulatory skill levels of male students were much higher than those of female students in studies conducted by Lynch andTrujillo (2011), Wigfield, Eccles, andPintrich (1996), and Liou and Kao (2014).…”

Exploring the Apparent Motivational Impact of Resurrection Points from Final Exam Performance

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